Companies of Japan

Cute is everywhere in Japan, from formal to casual use, from food to fashion. Kawaii or cute is defined as childlike with the celebration of sweet and vulnerable behavior and physical appearance. (Skov& Moeran, 1995) It is highly valued by Japanese, seems like a national ethos, but also the representation of Japan’s soft power. Its influence extended beyond the border of Japan and permeated into foreign countries due to consumerism, especially in the United States. Nevertheless, people seem to…

visual and material culture. My academic interests center on cross-cultural interactions during the early modern period manifested in visual and material culture. I am particularly interested in the relationship, fostered by trade, between China, Japan and the Netherlands. During the seventeenth and eighteenth century, Dutch society experienced a dramatic transformation with the establishment of the…

operations, capital improvements such as research, and development, and employment growth. One reason is that there are tremendous tax and currency exchange savings to be had doing it that way, versus sending the money back to Japan and then having to pull funding from Japan to finance U.S. operations (O’Dell, 2013). The profits generated selling automobiles that are designed and built in the United States goes in several different directions. The amount…

business and start a textiles company. In 1933 he travelled to Osaka to study economics at Ritsumeikan University. He became a Japanese citizen following the Second World War. Ando lost his textile company to bankruptcy, following being convicted of tax evasion in 1948. He later explained that he had given students scholarships, which was illegal at the time. After losing his textile business, he founded a family owned salt production company in Ikeda, Osaka. This company was to become Nissin.…

On 11 March 2011, all international news broadcasts were fixated on Japan, for an unfortunate reason; a natural catastrophe that has struck the Tohoku region of Japan without warning. The calamity was instantaneously announced through viral videos, emails, Twitter feeds, social media and live broadcasts on both international and local Japanese news programs, with the global network news reporters clambering through the rubble (Bestor, 2013). This unprecedented natural disaster that has shocked…

defined as a possession which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. Ian Rowley, correspondent based in BusinessWeek's Tokyo bureau said that for first-time visitors to Japan, it soon becomes apparent this is a country with a rare talent for big infrastructure projects. Its roads, although congested in urban areas, are nearly always billiard-table smooth. Japan's vast rail network, including the bullet trains…

also known as the Book of Japan, published in 1975. Starts off around the year 1600 with Europe just starting to explore Asia and other far off lands in exchange for power and wealth. “Beginning…

not to hold back on the history that is taught to the young people of a nation, because we are taught history to both understand how we got to the state that we are now in as a country and how we can prevent repetition of horrific historical events. Japan and China are known for finding cleaver ways to hide, disguise, and/or protect specific historical events from becoming common knowledge within the respective country because the lack of pride that may stem from any one event. Japanese history…

On March 31st, 1854, officials from the United States and Japan signed the Treaty of Kanagawa, opening Japanese ports to trade with the United States, as well as the West, after being closed off to foreigners since 1683 (“Treaty of Kanagawa signed with Japan”). While this was just the first step of the globalization process, the complex mechanisms of globalization continue to shape Japan today. After World War II, due to Japan’s rapid growth, the country emerged as a major global player and…

magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami with waves peaking at 17 meters hit Japan on March 11, 2011. Three of the reactors at Fukushima overheated because the cooling systems failed after a tsunami flooded the power station and disabled the reactor cooling system which causing core meltdowns and make reactors impossible to restart . This was compounded by hydrogen gas explosions and released large amounts of radioactive material into the air, and the releases continue to this day. The accident…